Dear Friends in the parish and beyond,People who live on their own often tell me how much they dislike it as the nights lengthen; they draw their curtains at about 4pm and know that they may well not see anyone until the next day. So the approach of Winter makes them depressed. I tend to be fairly even in my moods, but I know many people who go up and down quite easily. Just this week I was standing in a queue at Sainsburys and overheard the man next to me telling his friend what a foul mood he'd been in earlier in the day. I did find when I was younger that if I wanted to enjoy highs in my life, then I was totally vulnerable to the lows; and after a bit I decided that I needed to develop some sort of equilibrium to stop myself see-sawing up and down.

This is also true in my life as a Christian. Some people are spiritual butterflies constantly looking for spiritual highs, and they can't cope when they sink down if they have no strategies for coping. Jesus tackles this issue when his disciples come back from a task he has given them, thrilled to bits at how they have seen God at work. Jesus gently reminds them not to get too excited at that, but, rather "rejoice that your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). Time and again I come back to that: my joy must come from my faith in God and his love for me rather than from whether things are going well or badly for me. However things are going, I KNOW that I belong to him and he is in control, and that provides me with that rod of joy, hope and strength that I need, especially on bad days.

Perhaps that will help you as well in the grey days of Autumn and Winter.